SVS 2019: Elderly patients should not be denied TEVAR based on age alone

28th August 2019

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Ali Azizzadeh (Los Angeles, USA) talks to BLearning at SVS 2019 (Society for Vascular Surgery, 12–15 June, Washington DC, USA) about his recent move from Houston, Texas to Los Angeles, California, and how the patient populations differ between these two areas.

Azizzadeh has observed that people in Los Angeles, and California in general, are “a lot more physically active” and “tend to be healthier”. On average, patients are “a decade older than what I used to see in Texas,” he adds.

Azizzadeh also discusses his recently published data on elderly patients who received a thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) and notes that many older patients are often not offered these procedures because of age. He states that these patients “should not be denied an operation based on age alone” noting that healthy patients who are older can tolerate such an operation with results “that are comparable to other patient populations”.